


Luck, Chance, or F8

by YamiTami



Series: Dark Season [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Hospitals, Poison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-27
Updated: 2012-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-30 04:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YamiTami/pseuds/YamiTami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska's been poisoned on a FLARPing run and while she's laid up in the medirespiteblock she's treated by a strangely cheerful researcher named Jonden Trebeg.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Luck, Chance, or F8

Vriska glared with all the power her eight eyes afforded her as her she walked into the clinic. Or rather, she was half-dragged by her FLARPing partner of the season.

“Damn bastards, laying a trap instead of facing us like real soldiers,” she was saying, her complaints only adding to Vriska’s headache. “They knew they couldn’t beat us so instead they tricked us, the cowards. If those fools hadn’t gotten lucky then—“

Vriska shoved off the assistance of her _former_ FLARPing partner and fought to keep her balance as the room blurred around the edges. She drew herself to her full height and spat out, “ _You’re_ the fool if you’re going to call them ‘lucky’. That wasn’t luck, idiot, that was _straaaaaaaategy_.”

The other girl sneered. “You want to say that those bumbling, ruddy novices had the skill to—“

“I want to call it what it _is_ , moron. Passing their win off to luck is just childish.” Vriska waved her finger in her ex-partner’s face and hoped her eyes weren’t too unfocused that it ruined the effect. “Only _wigglers_ blame their failures on bad luck!”

“So what are you blaming it on?”

Vriska threw her hands wide and ended up with white spots dancing in her vision but she stayed her ground. “They beat us! They beat us fair and square. No, you shut up and listen. You were right that they knew they couldn’t beat us head on, so instead of charging us and ending up dead they did something smarter. They waited until we were focused on fighting other players, they trapped us, and they won the match.”

Her ex-partner made a disgusted sound. “It sounds like you’re praising them.”

Vriska planted her hands on her hips. “Maybe because I _am!_ There’s no shame in recognizing a worthy opponent! If you’re beaten by a worthy opponent then that’s just the way it goes. If you’re going to try and claim that they were unworthy and only beat us out of luck it makes _us_ look bad.”

“You’re just going to _accept_ this defeat?”

Vriska laughed. “The defeat already _haaaaaaaappened_ , in case you didn’t notice. Not even the _Empress_ is completely undefeated. The way you stay alive isn’t claiming that you’ll never be bested by anyone, but by learning from your mistakes _and_ from the victories of your enemies.”

“You—“ the girl stopped herself, took a deep breath, and made a quick bow in apology. “Sorry.”

“You better be sorry,” Vriska said scornfully. “I’m not the top ranked FLARPing champion in the district for _noooooooothing_. Taking you on as my partner was of greatest benefit to _you_. Where is the gratitude?”

“I am grateful!” she snapped. “But don’t act like this was _charity_. I’ve been an excellent partner in the games!”

Repentant or not it just wasn’t in the girl to back down completely. It was one of the reasons Vriska chose her as a partner. But that and the rest of her favorable qualities were being overshadowed by how she acted in defeat. It ground at Vriska and what was left of her willingness to play nice evaporated.

“Compared to the other wigglers I’ve been stuck with, yes, you were excellent,” Vriska admitted flatly. Irritated though she was she wasn’t going to deny that fact. Only compared to the string of prior partners, though. There had only ever been one truly excellent FLARPing partner in Vriska’s career, but regrettably Terezi hadn’t had time for the games since she became a paralegislacerator.

The girl stood there looking peeved. “ _And?_ ”

“ _Aaaaaaaand_ your comparable excellence is why you’ve lasted longer than any other temporary partner I’ve had, but n—“

“ _Temporary!?_ ”

“ _But now that partnership is over!_ ” Vriska sneered. “Try again when you’ve grown up a little, wiggler.”

For a moment it looked like the girl might attack. She was cerulean level with Vriska’s shade so she could get away with it. But, even though she knew that Vriska had been poisoned, even though she knew that at that moment Vriska was weak, even though she’d spent seasons learning Vriska’s moves, even though she was at that moment probably the best equipped troll in existence to kill Vriska Serket... she didn’t. She shook with anger, she bit her tongue, and she stomped off and out the clinic door.

Vriska took a moment to preen with pride—seven sweeps old and she was the scariest spider in the game, it was her—before the poison grabbed her again. The endorphins which flooded her system when she was yelling at her ex-partner gave her a boost but now it was fading and she knew she needed to sit down before she got too dizzy to stand. She managed the task without giving away how shaky she felt, not that it would have mattered too much if she did. Ondela ran a tight ship; none of the medics or laboratory technicians running around past the carded doors would blab about any weakness shown. Still, Vriska supposed, old habits die hard.

She found herself laid up on a plush resting platform in a group medirespiteblock dedicated to chemical maladies. It was very crowded. A few looked like your standard FLARPing and military training fare, like her own injury, but most of them had great blood-colored splotches across their skin. She fought the urge to skim the surface-thoughts of the victims and the medics; given the amenities provided by the woman running the place it would be considered very rude. Generally Vriska didn’t pay all that much mind to politeness but Ondela was a feared aquatic and her rules about her staff and psychic abilities were reasonable... plus Vriska just felt tired.

Besides, while her abilities certainly saw constant use she tried to make sure that her other skills were just as sharp. Figuring out why the medirespiteblock dedicated to chemical maladies was so full without cheating and while she was fuzzy from poison would be a good mental workout.

She was almost disappointed when it was easy, even for her fuzzied mind. All the blood-colored burns were shades of maroon to yellowish brown, with the exception of one troll who was oozing yellowish green. Most of their clothing had been cut off to get to the injuries, but give a sleeve here and a fragment of collar there Vriska could tell they had all been wearing coveralls. Workers on the factory line, plus their greenblooded supervisor, who had been involved in a chemical spill. Not a challenge to figure out at all.

Vriska watched how the staff handled the full block with sleepy interest. As was the usual all the medics were greenbloods, and also as was usual none of them showed any signs of psychic ability under the passive energy-seeking part of Vriska’s vision eightfold. However, every single orderly in the block glimmered. They ran around doing orderly things like fetching bandages and holding vomit dishes, things that would be considered proper tasks for maroon to yellowbloods. They also used passive abilities like empathy and body reading and then discretely passed along what they learned to the medics, then at the direction of the medics used active abilities like nerve calming or freezing touch to help treat the patients.

Darting among the medics and orderlies were the lab techs taking samples and bringing results. There were only a handful of techs, which was why Vriska was still waiting; her medic said that the preliminary tests weren’t conclusive so more blood had to be drawn, but the techs were still catching up on the other non-factory patients in the block. When three bluebloods in crisp black-and-blood lab coats walked in one of the harried medics sagged in relief and called them over.

“Ma’ams and sir, oh thank goodness,” he said. “We got a full block all at once! Could you help us get samples taken?”

One of the ‘ma’ams’ rolled her eyes. “Vargut, we’re researchers, not _techs_. We’re only here because our lead—“ she gestured to the ‘sir’, “—wants us to take a look at the burns we’re dealing with before we modify a salve for it. Otherwise we might fudge the viscosity.”

The medic got green in the cheeks. “I just need a little fucking help with blood draws, you—”

The lead researcher held up his hand, wisely cutting off the oncoming insult. “Don’t worry about it, Kalind! We’ll help you out.”

The girl protested, “But _Trebeg_ , that’s not what we _do!_ ”

He just smiled at her. “Oh, don’t be silly! We’ll always be there to help our coworkers out, and we can examine the burns while we do draws so it’ll be a win-win.”

“That is not what I signed up—“

“ _Hulock,_ if I tell you to do blood draws then you will do blood draws,” Trebeg said, all warmth vanishing and leaving ice behind. Vriska had been wondering how someone so apparently _nice_ got to be lead anything, but it looked like her question was answered in that level toned admonishment. Hulock shrunk in on herself and scurried off in the direction indicated by the medic. Trebeg’s expression went back to all smiles from cool steel. “Okay, Kalind, I think they can handle the burns. Where do you need me?”

“Actually, there’s a girl in here for poisoning and the standard tests came back unhelpful.”

“Oh, a challenge! Where is she?”

It wasn’t until Trebeg was sitting on the edge of her platform that Vriska realized they were talking about her.

“Hi,” she slurred as he sat down. Smiles, smiles, smiles, even though it looked like he had the mettle to back it up she still felt herself rolling her eyes at it. It did nothing to deter his cheer.

“Hello! My name is Jonden Trebeg, Miss...” he glanced at her chart, “Miss Serket. I’m just going to draw some more blood so we can narrow down the problem.”

“Problem is that some junior FLARPers got the drop on me because I didn’t take them seriously enough,” she mumbled.

He nodded as he readied his needles. “Oh, FLARP, we get so much business from those games. Lots of it is the same old same old cuts and bruises but sometimes we get a really fascinating injury!”

His Tyranny was still out on what Vriska thought of this guy. “Really? Counting me?”

“Definitely! I designed our standard panels specifically so it would cover everything that would plausibly be in someone’s bloodstream. Even if it doesn’t get the specific variation it should give us the right _planet_ but your tests were all muddled! Oh, but don’t worry, your vitals are stable and I’ll figure out this toxin personally.”

Vriska took a closer look at this researcher who willingly did things below his station, was ridiculously joyful, and got all giddy over her poisoning. His hair was messy, even by messy standards, and he had a high-blue streak in his bangs. At first it reminded her of her ex-kismesis, like all blood-streaks did, and it really didn’t help that he had a pair of plastic frame glasses. But then the fact that Trebeg clearly did not spend a season making his colored swath into the perfect zigzag helped his case. Plus his glasses were functional rectangular things versus Eridan’s, which Vriska felt took up most of his face for no good reason.

Unlike most trolls his horns didn’t go up; instead his curved down and slightly forward in two simple arcs with the tips level with his chin. He had a little bit of an overbite and nicely sharp teeth poked over his bottom lip. For some reason he’d added a blood-blue hood to his lab coat. The tail of the hood brushed the ground when he walked in.

Vriska decided he looked like a total dork.

“So, Miss Serket... can I call you Vriska?”

She gave him the best stare she could muster. Even drugged she could do impressive things with eight eyes.

“Okay, so no. No problem! So, Miss Serket, do you remember how you were poisoned?”

Vriska told him about the events leading up to that day’s defeat. She was as impressed as she was angry that the low ranking group had gotten the drop on her and stolen the objective out from under her nose. Then again, it took eleven of them working together to manage it so Vriska didn’t feel too bad about being bested. She took it as a reminder that being cocky got you killed and that the next reminder might not be so kind so she better remember.

Trebeg seemed fascinated by the strategy involved. Once he got her story—looking for clues about the delivery system since that would help narrow down the poison—he left with the vials of her blood, but he soon returned. After handing off the modified salve for the factory workers he sat back down on the edge of her resting platform and fiddled with a tablet and a case full of bottles. He cheerfully told her he was observing her symptoms and trying out small doses of various possible cures to get a better handle on the poison, which probably came from the lusus of one of the eleven that beat Vriska or one of their quadrants. Trebeg rambled on for a little bit about how lusus poisons were tricky since there were so many variations until finally Vriska snapped.

“God, I _knoooooooow_ that! My lusus is a spider and she used to nip me all the time back before she got big as a hive.”

“Oh! And you researched it then? I should have known you were smart or else you wouldn’t be such a bigshot at FLARP.”

Trebeg wasn’t at all put off by her tone. Vriska wasn’t sure what was worse, his bouncy cheer or the fact that it wasn’t bothering her more than it was.

“So, are you immune to her venom now?”

She nodded.

“That’s pretty standard for venomous lusii,” he said distractedly as he messed with his tablet. “Bite their trolls when both are still young so the troll grows up with the rising potency levels... whoops!” He made a goofy face and play-punched his own skull. “You already know all of that.”

She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Obviously! I didn’t get this far by being pretty; I’m still alive because I’m _smart_.”

“I think you’re very good at both!”

Vriska had to take a second to process that. “Are you _flirting_ with me?”

He actually looked put out. “No, Erozia would have my hide! She’s very strict on not flirting with patients because it just makes everything more complicated. I’ve never had a problem with it because, well, I’m a true scientist! No problems separating work and quadrants, unlike some people.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Soooooooo... how is saying I’m pretty not flirting?”

He rolled his eyes at her like she was being deliberately dense. “Because it’s a fact? It’s only flirting if you make stuff up just to get into somebody’s quadrants. If it’s one hundred percent true then it’s not flirting.”

Vriska realized that Trebeg was completely serious when he said that. She was a prime bachelorette and she’d heard everything from suitors in every quadrant and none of it ever touched her, and then this dorky researcher who can’t shut up comes along and makes her go blue at the ears.

“So, Miss Vriska, what other interesting adventures have you had as a FLARPing champion? I bet you’ve got some great stories!”

“... Okay, you can call me Vriska.”

Just when she thought that overbitten grin couldn’t get any bigger, it did. “Great! You can call me Jonden, of course!” He nudged her shoulder. “Don’t leave me hanging, come on and tell me a FLARP story.”

Eight days later Vriska came back for her scheduled follow up and even though she’d long since cast aside her notions of luck like so many broken oracles she couldn’t help but feel that was important. As soon as she had the all clear she waltzed right down to Jonden’s lab, held her discharge papers in front of his nose, and asked him out to dinner.

Jonden giggled and asked how he could possibly refuse someone so cool. She told him it was clearly impossible and that was just a fact. She spent the entire meal checking herself against exaggerating anything she said about him, and when he kissed her cheek in parting she knew it was well worth it.

Whether it was luck, chance, or fate that lead her to him, the result was the same. Jonden Trebeg was hers.

**Author's Note:**

> Kalind Vargut is an original troll created by [turntechcherrysprite](http://turntechcherrysprite.tumblr.com/) for an [AskDS](http://askdarkseason.tumblr.com/) contest.


End file.
